Statistics Explained

Archive:The EU in the world - population

Data extracted in March 2015. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
Figure 1: Share of world population, 1960 and 2013 (1)
(%)
Source: Eurostat (demo_gind) and the World Bank (Health Nutrition and Population Statistics)
Table 1: Population and population density, 1960, 1985 and 2013
Source: Eurostat (demo_gind) and (tps00003), the World Bank (Health Nutrition and Population Statistics), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAOSTAT: Inputs) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (World Population Prospects: the 2012 Revision)
Figure 2: Age pyramids, 2013
(% of total population)
Source: Eurostat (demo_pjangroup) and the World Bank (Health Nutrition and Population Statistics)
Figure 3: Young-age dependency ratio, 1960 and 2013
(population aged 0–14 as a percentage of the population aged 15–64)
Source: Eurostat (demo_pjanind) and the World Bank (Health Nutrition and Population Statistics)
Figure 4: Old-age dependency ratio, 1960 and 2013
(population aged 65 or more as a percentage of the population aged 15–64)
Source: Eurostat (demo_pjanind) and the World Bank (Health Nutrition and Population Statistics)
Figure 5: Average age at first marriage (1)
(years)
Source: Eurostat (demo_nind) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (World Fertility Report 2012)
Figure 6: Fertility rate, 2000 and 2012
(average number of births per woman)
Source: Eurostat (demo_find) and the World Bank (World Development Indicators)
Figure 7: Crude birth rate, 2000 and 2012
(per 1 000 population)
Source: Eurostat (demo_gind) and the World Bank (World Development Indicators)
Figure 8: Crude death rate, 2000 and 2012
(per 1 000 population)
Source: Eurostat (demo_gind) and the World Bank (World Development Indicators)
Table 2: Population change, annual averages for July 1995 to June 2000 and July 2005 to June 2010
(per 1 000 population)
Source: Eurostat (demo_gind) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (World Population Prospects: the 2012 Revision)
Figure 9: Share of foreign-born citizens in the population, 2000 and 2013
(%)
Source: Eurostat (migr_pop6ctb) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Trends in International Migrant Stock: the 2013 Revision)
Figure 10: Asylum seekers (1)
(thousand applicants)
Source: Eurostat (migr_asyappctza) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR Statistical Online Population Database)
Table 3: Projections for population and density, 2013 to 2060 (1)
Source: Eurostat (demo_gind), (tps00003) and (proj_13npms), the World Bank (Health Nutrition and Population Statistics) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (World Population Prospects: the 2012 Revision)
Figure 11: Projections for young-age dependency ratio, 2040 and 2060 (1)
(population aged 0–14 as a percentage of the population aged 15–64)
Source: Eurostat (proj_13npms) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (World Population Prospects: the 2012 Revision)
Figure 12: Projections for old-age dependency ratio, 2040 and 2060 (1)
(population aged 65 or more as a percentage of the population aged 15–64)
Source: Eurostat (proj_13ndbims) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (World Population Prospects: the 2012 Revision)

This article is part of a set of statistical articles based on Eurostat’s publication The EU in the world 2015.

This article focuses on population structure and population developments in the European Union (EU) and in the 15 non-EU members of the Group of Twenty (G20). It covers key demographic indicators and gives an insight of the EU’s population in comparison with the major economies in the rest of the world, such as its counterparts in the so-called Triad — Japan and the United States — and the BRICS composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Main statistical findings

Population size and population density

Between 1960 and 2013 the share of the world’s population living in G20 members fell from 73.8 % to 64.3 %

In 2013, the world’s population reached 7.1 billion inhabitants and continued to grow. Although all members of the G20 recorded higher population levels in 2013 than they did more than 50 years before, between 1960 and 2013 the share of the world’s population living in G20 members fell from 73.8 % to 64.3 %. Russia recorded the smallest overall population increase (19.7 %) during these 53 years, followed by the EU-28 (23.9 %), while the fastest population growth among G20 members was recorded in Saudi Arabia, with a seven-fold increase.

The most populous countries in the world in 2013 were China and India, together accounting for almost 37 % of the world’s population (see Figure 1) and 57 % of the population in the G20 members. The population of the EU-28 in 2013 was 506.0 million inhabitants, 7.1 % of the world’s total.

As well as having the largest populations, Asia had the most densely populated G20 members, namely South Korea, India and Japan — each with more than 300 inhabitants per km² (of land area), followed by China and Indonesia and then the EU-28 with more than 100 inhabitants per km².

Population age structure

Ageing society represents a major demographic challenge for many economies and may be linked to a range of issues, including, persistently low levels of fertility rates and significant increases in life expectancy during recent decades.

Figure 2 shows how different the age structure of the EU-28’s population is from the average for the whole world. Most notably the largest shares of the world’s population are among the youngest age classes, reflecting a population structure that is younger, whereas for the EU-28 the share of the age groups below those aged 45–49 years generally gets progressively smaller approaching the youngest cohorts. The structure in the EU-28 reflects falling fertility rates over several decades and a modest increase in the most recent decade, combined with the impact of the baby-boomer cohorts on the population structure (resulting from high fertility rates in several European countries up to the mid-1960s). This overall pattern of a progressively smaller share of the population in the younger age groups in the EU-28 stops at the age group 10–14, below which the share stabilises in the age group 5–9 and increases slightly in the age group 0–4. Another notable difference is the greater gender imbalance within the EU-28 among older age groups than is typical for the world as a whole. Some of the factors influencing age structure are presented in the rest of this article and the article on health, for example, fertility, migration and life expectancy.

Japan had by far the highest old-age dependency ratio in 2013

The young and old age dependency ratios shown in Figures 3 and 4 summarise the level of support for younger persons (aged less than 15 years) and older persons (aged 65 years and over) provided by the working age population (those aged 15–64 years). In 2013, the young-age dependency ratio ranged from 20.4 % in South Korea to more than double this ratio in South Africa (45.4 %), with the ratio in the EU-28 (23.6 %) lower than in most G20 members. By far the highest old-age dependency ratio in 2013 was the 40.5 % observed in Japan, indicating that there were two people aged 65 and over for every five people aged 15 to 64 years; the next highest old-age dependency ratio was 27.5 % in the EU-28.

The fall in the young-age dependency ratio for the EU-28 between 1960 and 2013 more than cancelled out an increase in the old-age dependency ratio. Most of the G20 members displayed a similar pattern, with two exceptions: in Japan the increase in the old-age dependency ratio exceeded the fall in the young-age dependency ratio; in Saudi Arabia both the young and old-age dependency ratios were lower in 2013 than in 1960, reflecting a large increase in the working age population in this country.

See also

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Demography (t_pop)
Demography - National data (t_demo)
Population (t_demo_pop)
Population density (tps00003)

Database

Demography (pop)
Demography - National data (demo)
Demographic balance and crude rates (demo_gind)
Population (demo_pop)
Population on 1 January by age and sex (demo_pjan)
Population on 1 January by five years age groups and sex (demo_pjangroup)
Population on 1 January: Structure indicators (demo_pjanind)
Fertility (demo_fer)
Fertility indicators (demo_find)
Marriage and divorce (demo_nup)
Marriage indicators (demo_nind)
Divorce indicators (demo_ndivind)
International Migration and Asylum (migr)
Asylum (migr_asy)
Applications (migr_asyapp)
Asylum and new asylum applicants by citizenship, age and sex Annual aggregated data (rounded) (migr_asyappctza)
Population projections (proj)
EUROPOP2013 - Population projections at national level (proj_13n)
Projected population (proj_13np)

Dedicated section

Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)

Excel.jpg Population: tables and figures

External links

  • Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations FAO
  • OECD
  • United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
  • United Nations Economic Commission for Europe UNECE
  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR
  • World Bank
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